Brazil Weekly’s Brazil Culture & Regional News

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CINEMA

When Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’s adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” opens at Cannes 65th Film Festival, a more than 30-year old journey will end (Folha).

FIFA WORLD CUP

Brazil will complete all its planned infrastructure projects and stadium development programs on time to host soccer’s World Cup in 2014, the country’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo said (Bloomberg).

AMAZON

When Brazilian indigenous leader Tashka Yawanawa saw the news on television that communities from Peru were campaigning to prevent the construction of dams close to their land, he had no doubt about how he could help. He turned on his computer, and using Skype, he contacted indigenous movements involved in the protest to offer both his support and to publicise the cause in Brazil (BBC).

BRASILIA

“It’s easy to speak ill of the capital of Brazil. But it is also necessary. Brasilia turns 52 today. It is enough time for any project of such magnitude to work out. But Brasilia failed completely in the three main reasons that support its creation (Folha)”.

NORTH EAST

National and international media groups are calling on the Brazilian authorities to fully investigate the murder of a campaigning journalist. Political reporter and blogger Decio Sa was shot dead in the north-eastern state of Maranhao. He was the fourth journalist to be killed in Brazil so far this year (BBC).

RIO

The Military Police (Polícia Militar, PM) are planning on forming 7,000 new recruits by the end of this year. The main goal is to reach 60,000 PMs – 16,000 more than today – by 2016, and ensure security for the major events like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games (The Rio Times).

The neighborhood of Leblon is perhaps the most exclusive and expensive in the city, yet bordered on two sides by canals draining into the sea, polluted water is often harming the beach’s appeal. On one side is the Jardim de Allah canal, and the other side the Visconde de Albuquerque canal, and residents have since, long been hoping for some solutions (The Rio Times).

Every July, the celebrities of the publishing world gather in a small town on the lush coast of Rio de Janeiro state. They are drawn to Brazil by a literary festival that has already been attended by renowned authors including Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood and Paul Auster. The warm reception and idyllic setting prompted British novelist Ian McEwan to refer to the Paraty International Literary Festival, or Flip, as it is known , as “like being in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (BBC).

Rio do Janeiro officially declared it is suffering an epidemics emergency of the mosquito transmitted disease of dengue, following confirmed reports of over 50.000 cases so far this year, and 500 in the last week (MercoPress).

Congressman Paulo Maluf lost a bid to dismiss charges filed against him in New York in 2007 for allegedly stealing $11.6 million from a Brazilian public works project when he was mayor of Sao Paulo. Maluf and his businessman son, Flavio, who also was charged, sought a court order to toss the indictment accusing them of participating in a kickback scheme in which money was run through a New York bank account and then transferred offshore (Reuters).

Eletropaulo Metropolitana Electricidade de Sao Paulo SA, the Brazilian utility unit of AES Corp., is planning to install smart meters that will monitor electricity usage for as many as 80,000 customers to improve the reliability of its power grid and curb theft (Bloomberg).